Alan Rankin: Solo Round Britain Challenge

On June 9^th our customer, Alan Rankin, plans to begin his challenge to embark on a solo singlehanded circumnavigation of the UK and Ireland. He will sail his yacht, Trade Winds, over 2,300 miles in some of the most challenging yet beautiful waters in the world. His challenge does not end there however as he will also be participating in ten 10k runs (one run at each port including our very own Poole Quay) with the intention of raising funds and awareness of his challenge and his charitable objectives.

Alan has over 30,000 miles of sailing experience and is the three times class winner of the Scottish Islands Three Peaks Race. In 2006 he became the first person to singlehandedly sail and cycle around Scotland and now he is preparing to sail singlehandedly around the UK and Ireland in order to raise money and awareness for several charities that are close to his heart including Parkinson’s UK, Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation, Multiple Sclerosis Society and Ocean Youth Trust Scotland.

Alan is passionate about the conservation of our seas and wants to raise awareness of how we can all enjoy them without abusing them. His journey will use entirely renewable resources including wind, wave, tidal and solar power and with food and drink all sourced from sustainable producers in the UK he is really making an effort to be kind to the environment. He has been toying with the idea of creating his own campaign called ‘NOTS’ Nil Over The Side and promises that during his trip he will not throw anything at all over the side of his boat. Alan will also be using his trip as a unique photography opportunity and will be recording wildlife observations and supplying his records to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Society.

We are pleased to be lending an IsatPhone Pro to assist Alan on his challenge. He will be able to use this extremely robust satellite phone to keep in touch whilst he is out of regular mobile network ranges as it uses the highly reliable Inmarsat network service which has global coverage excluding the poles. Alan will be keeping everybody updated regularly during his voyage through Twitter and so we recommended the IsatPhone Pro as it is the only satellite phone that has its own Twitter menu and is able to send and receive tweets via its SMS functionality. Alan will also be using an external antenna to maintain optimum signal throughout his trip. You can follow his progress by following Alan on Twitter: @soloroundbrit

You can read about the Twitter functionality of the IsatPhone on our blog: Using the IsatPhone Pro in-built Twitter menu.

The following table charts all of Alan's departure and arrival dates along with direct-line sea miles and is a best case scenario and so is subject to changes depending on weather conditions.